The Niagara River Lions continue to struggle with putting the finishing touches on winnable games.

Tied 113-113 with 2:25 left in the game Wednesday on the road against the first-placed London Lightning, Niagara was out-scored 10-1 the rest of the way to end up on the wrong end of a 123-114 decision.

Niagara’s final minutes included an air ball from beyond the arc, two missed lay-ups under the basket and two uncontested three-point shots by London that ended hopes for a Niagara upset.

“We didn’t score for the last two and half a minutes,” River Lions head coach Ken Murray said. “It’s totally frustrating because we had such great success getting the ball inside and we stopped doing that.”

Logan Stutz had 37 points and 19 rebounds for Niagara in the game, but barely touched the ball when the game was on the line.

“Logan had a great game and we should have focused in a little more on him,” Murray said, adding his team had a big size advantage inside on London.

Despite the loss, Murray did find some positives in another late-game loss for the River Lions.

“About three or four weeks ago, the last four minutes of the game we were struggling,” he said. “Now we’ve got it down to two and a half minutes.”

It’s a trend that Murray would like his team to stop as soon as possible.

“If you keep losing like that, what is going to happen is you are going to stop believing you can win. If you get into that situation, your season is just a washout.”

“I thought Johnson gave us some pretty good minutes considering he only practised with us once,” Murray said. “He’s going to be a nice addition for us.”

Johnson, a former Canadian junior team member who played with Cook at St. Bonaventure, was 5-8 from the floor and added four rebounds and four assists.

Leading the Lightning were Stephen Maxwell with 32 points and 15 rebounds and Ryan Anderson with 27 points. Anderson was 10-12 from the floor, including 6-8 from beyond the three-point arc.

The two teams meet again Thursday night at 7 p.m,. at Meridian Centre.

“Hopefully we can take the positives and see if we can turn it around tomorrow (Thursday),” Murray said.

By this point of the season, the teams in the Central Division have played so often that there are few surprises.

“We know their offences, we know their personnel and it comes down to who can execute the best down the stretch,” Murray said. “That’s what happens in this league. It’s a five-minute game and who plays best in the last five minutes ends up winning the game.”

Niagara will likely be missing Mike Allison from today’s game. The Canadian-born forward injured his neck and is doubtful for today’s game.

The River Lions fell to 5-12 with the loss while the Lightning improved to 14-4.